'We may have won a political fight, but we've lost the war in cricket'

Syed Ashraful Haque, former Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) general secretary and ex-chief executive officer of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), believes the board could have handled the situation surrounding Bangladesh's participation in the upcoming T20 World Cup in India more effectively. Bangladesh are set to miss the upcoming edition in India and Sri Lanka after their uncompromising stand of not playing in India over security issues didn't cut ice with the ICC.

In an exclusive interaction with Cricbuzz, the seasoned administrator outlines alternative approaches the BCB could have explored at the negotiating table.

Excerpts...

What is your take on the present crisis surrounding Bangladesh cricket?

Very unfortunate that the present board is totally subservient to decision of a government that won't be around after a few weeks, but the damage left behind and possible seclusion from the international cricket community will have far reaching consequences as Bangladesh will be considered as potential trouble monger in cricket circles. Any self respecting cricket board would have spread out the ICC security measures to the team and asked the players to take a call, if they felt insecure then by all means don't go, but the call should have been from the players, not from the government or the board. They have deprived the players of their lifetime ambitions of playing a World Cup, just to suit a questionable agenda.

I don't like this at all. First of all, think about what other countries do, a call like this is made by the board, never by the government. In most countries like India, Pakistan, or Sri Lanka, the government makes the call because we need government permission (GO) to go abroad as a national team. I accept that. But in most countries, when there's a security issue, they call the players and say, "This is the security arrangement promised to us. We feel there might be some lapses in certain places, but we leave it up to you. Whoever wants to go, go; whoever doesn't, don't. No punishment will be taken." This is what the board usually says.

It's left up to the cricketers to decide whether they want to go or not. "We feel there might be some security lapses," whatever the reason they give. But here, the government made the call; the players were just called to be told they can't go. Think about a player - his lifetime ambition is to play in the World Cup, the glory of the World Cup and all that. It's completely shattered now. Now, in the future, every country will be a bit apprehensive about Bangladesh's participation in anything. They will think Bangladesh is a troublemaker or something.

Do you feel this sudden pull-out could invite sanctions from the ICC?

They could, because we've signed an agreement. We signed an agreement with them, and I'm sure there's a clause that security aspects will be overseen by the ICC. I'm sure it's there and we used to do it when I was at the ACC. I haven't seen that specific document yet, but this is bad. Okay, we might have won a political fight with India, but we've lost the war in cricket.

There's the matter of viewership. In modern-day cricket, if there's a loss in viewership from Bangladesh, could the ICC ask BCB to compensate?

This can happen, yes. Because when the tender is floated for world rights, it states it will be telecast - terrestrial rights will be there. We can't stop satellite rights, but terrestrial rights will be in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and wherever else. They bid against that and Bangladesh's viewership is probably, I think, the third or fourth largest in the world. So, Bangladesh's viewership is of very high consequence.

Do you think Bangladesh's stubborn approach at the negotiating table weakened its position early on?

We had already taken a stand and we had no other choice. Our stand was either we play the World Cup if we're allowed to play in Sri Lanka, or we won't play. That's what I am trying to say that we shouldn't have taken a stand straight away. That's not right. Talk first. Everything can be resolved through talk. So that would be a win-win situation for everybody. And we, we have played into the hands of the extreme rightist political parties in India. We walked into the trap set by the extremely rightist parties of India. It is their victory not our governments.

Do you feel BCB failed to convince the government?

I would think so. And why would they be shy to talk to this government? This government is only there for a few more weeks. We could have put in our pressure and said that if this goes this way, we want to send our team or we don't want to send our team. But we should be able to talk to our government, more so because this government is there for a temporary period.

How do you feel Bangladesh can recover?

I really don't know. Bangladesh has to do a fantastic PR job with the cricket-playing countries and probably you know what I am talking about because we should understand where we stand as we got only one vote from other member countries during the meeting. We shouldn't have taken the hard line at the beginning.

They are talking about fighting it out in the court of arbitration. Do you feel this can be a way out?

If we go to arbitration, we don't stand a chance. We don't stand a chance.

Why?

Because they will say that all previous World Cups have been done on the security arrangements assured by the host country to the owners, which is the ICC. And ICC makes an independent evaluation of that and then they suggest to the countries. So ICC's recommendation is simple: that there is no security threat in India at the moment. Our only argument is that Mustafizur was not allowed to play because of security, so how can they provide security to the whole team? That is their only argument.

Their argument will be, this [IPL] is a local tournament, a domestic tournament. There is a lot of difference between the security protocol of a domestic tournament and a World Cup event, and a touring team coming to India event. There are A, B, C level securities. And basically why they did not do that (keeping Mustafizur in the KKR squad) is because of the elections in West Bengal and Assam. They didn't want to take a risk because of the elections.

Do you feel when a political government comes they will be able to manage?

I hope so. They have to. Otherwise, it's the death of Bangladesh cricket.